Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. “You would blackmail me for my desire to protect an elderly man’s feelings? Good Lord, you really are a monster.”
The words were like barbed arrows piercing his heart. He knew what he was. He did not need the woman responsible for his depraved condition to remind him. Dismissing his irritation, he decided to use the situation to his advantage.
“Tell me what I want to know about the night you sunk your filthy fangs into my neck and I will keep your secret.” Leo gave a satisfied smirk as it felt good to have the upper hand. “I would hate to reveal the true nature of my affliction. And I doubt his heart would take the shock.”
She sucked in her cheeks as she glared at him. “Is that the price of a man’s sanity? Do you have no shame?” She shook her head and sighed. “Very well. What choice do I have?”
“None. But I will have your word.”
“Then you have it.” She barged past him and rushed towards the old man. “Herr Bruhn, you must go back inside. You’ll catch a chill out here in this dreadful weather.”
The old man squinted and blinked rapidly. “Is everything alright? You’re soaked through. What has happened to your cape? Why have you not gone home?” He tried to use his coat to shield her from the rain as his concerned gaze fell to Leo’s sword. “What … what is going on here?”
“All is well, Herr Bruhn.” She put her hand on his back and steered him away. “There is a problem with my carriage. The road is impassable, and I must walk home. This gentleman has been instructed to ensure I reach there safely.”
The man glanced back over his shoulder. “But who is he? I have never seen him here before.”
With some difficulty, Leo placed his sword back in the harness. “Herr Bruhn.” He inclined his head to the old man. It suddenly occurred to him that he didn’t know her name. In the years when he had cursed her and wished for her demise, he knew her only as the golden-haired devil. “I have been instructed to protect the lady,” Leo said, struggling to form the only polite word he knew of to describe the woman standing in front of him. “But you must go inside. If we do not leave now, I fear we will struggle to make it back, even on foot.”
“Herr Bruhn, I cannot afford for you to be ill too,” she implored.
Leo wondered why she did not use her skill for persuasion to force the man back into his home. Well, if she wouldn’t do it, he would.
“You must go inside, Herr Bruhn. You must go inside now.” Leo’s tone was firm, commanding and the golden-haired devil shot him an irritated glare.
“I must get inside,” he said shuffling towards a house on their right. “You are certain you will make it home safely?”
“I am certain,” she replied. “I need you to be well. I need you to take care of the children. A
nd I need to hurry home and get out of these wet clothes. Sylvester will be along to see you tomorrow.”
Placated, Herr Bruhn nodded vigorously. They escorted him to his door, bid him good night and then simply stared at each other.
“Well?” She thrust her hands on her hips as soon as Herr Bruhn closed the door. The wet garment clung to her womanly curves, enhanced the shape of her perfectly round breasts and Leo groaned inwardly.
“Well, what?” he snapped, being somewhat agitated by his reaction to her shapely figure. Damn it all. He had spent years lusting after women. To some extent his cock possessed a mind of its own, responded to the female form as opposed to the character of the woman within.
“Are you going to kill me where I stand or are you coming with me?”
Leo jerked his head back. “Coming with you where?”
An image of the forest flooded his mind, quickly followed by the dark, suffocating confines of her carriage, and the stone stairs curling up to the demon’s chamber.
A smile touched the corners of her lips, but it did not reach her eyes or illuminate her face. “I do not like lying to Herr Bruhn. You will escort me home. We will change out of these wet clothes, drink to suppress our hunger. I will tell you what you need to know, and you will decide what you wish to do with me.”
She was not using manipulation to persuade him to follow her, but as she sauntered past him, he felt a tug deep in his gut that forced him to traipse along behind.
Christ, if Elliot were here, he would think him fit for Bedlam. Indeed, in the hours he had waited at the window of the tavern in the hope of catching sight of her, he could never have predicted this was how the night would end.
The tavern!
“Wait,” he cried, remembering the maid he had instructed to sleep until he told her otherwise. “I’ll be but a minute.” They would find her in his room and believe he had administered poison, or an opiate to drug her into submission.
She stopped, picked her sodden cape off the ground and shook it out. “My carriage is waiting further along the road. I shall wait for you inside.”
Leo swallowed down his surprise. She could have climbed into her conveyance and sent the horses bolting for home. He would never catch up with her. He would never reach her once she’d passed through the iron gate of her fortress.
He nodded and then made his way back up to his room. The water running from his clothes left a slippery trail across the wooden boards. Giving the maid a vigorous shake and a command to wake, he was gone before she had a chance to sit up and rub the sleep from her eyes.